More than half of consumers watch product videos

With more than 85% of all U.S web users watching videos online in January—collectively watching 48.7 billion videos in the month, per comScore Inc. data—it is clear that consumers like to click “Play.” Survey results from video services vendor Animoto Inc. show why consumers are drawn to click Play when they’ve got shopping on the brain.

Animoto surveyed 1,014 U.S. online video-watching adults in December and found that 94% of them had watched at least one video in the previous week from a computer, and that 76% of smartphone owners had watched at least one video in the previous week from that device. More than half, 57%, of all respondents report watching a product description or service demonstration video during the previous six months. 96% of all respondents say they find watching a video helps them makes an online purchase decision, and 73% say they are more likely to purchase after watching a video that explains the products they are looking at online.

“The data show that there’s a real power in business videos to help people make confident shopping decisions,” says Brad Jefferson, CEO of Animoto.

The survey also asked about video viewing in select product categories. The largest percentage of respondents, 70%, say they’ve watched video when shopping for personal electronics. 36% say they’ve watched when trying to make purchase decisions about automotive products, 35% when deciding on toys, 30% when considering houseware purchases and 30% when considering exercise and fitness purchases.

84% say they’d like to see more videos on Amazon.com Inc. and 64% say they’d like to see more videos on eBay Inc.’s marketplace.

Younger adults watch web videos more frequently than all others. The survey says 40% of 18- to 24-year-olds watch more than 10 videos per week, versus 25% of all adults who watch that quantity.